Seraph Kinghts
by MegaX99
Summary: Cities lay in waste, as 3771-0T, or Elliot The Robotic Lion, Conquers everyone he comes across. In these dark times, a small band of warriors, led by Sonic and Rob Cold, fight to defend those still living free. They are called the Seraph Knights. OCs.
1. Chapter 1

Well...I'm here with a new story once again. I guess the only thing left to do is get it started.

Disclaimer: I only own the storyline and all the characters in this chapter. Sonic will appear later on, but I DO NOT OWN HIM.

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"_Times are rolling onwards. The past has been forgotten, the future is dim. How can simple creatures with nothing more then their friendship protect all those that they hold dear? Only through courage, strength and determination…Will they rise above the challenge that has been set before them."_

-Seraph the White Eagle

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"Damn it all!" Cried Marcus, as he ducked down behind the crumbling wall of what used to be a building. His crimson eyes stuck in a angry glare, as he raised up his handgun and looked over at his friend, Rob. "This was not supposed to happen, Rob! Where the heck did these bots come from!!!"

Rob shrugged as he peered over the remains of the wall and glared ahead at the various killing machines that lay waiting for him and his friend. His soft blue eyes were calm even in the sight of the ambush lying before him. "3771-0T isn't so stupid apparently." He said grimly, ice forming on his hands in a thin layer. He quickly ducked back down when one of the machines turned to look towards where he was.

Marcus frowned, looking at Rob. "Of course he isn't stupid. Look at what he did to so many of our friends!" He chanced his own look over the wall and took a quick potshot at a passing by machine, before gathering himself up to run from where the pair of them was hiding. "I'll draw them off. Can you get the job done in about two minuets?" Marcus asked before leaving. After getting a quick nod, Marcus the Fox stood up and ran away form his friend, firing his small gun at any machine he saw to get its attention.

After a few seconds, Rob Cold, Stood and ran down the opposite direction. His cool eyes dancing around as he took note of everything ahead of him. The crumbling ruins of various buildings and houses lay before him. Untold amounts of damage to each and every thing he saw. He found a familiar feeling of nausea roll up his stomach, and into the back of his throat. He ignored it, knowing that if he let his guard down for even one second, he could end up dead.

The empty streets of the city were eerily silent. Save for the slight, albeit barely noticeable, sound of wind blowing through whatever holes it could find in the building remains, and the now far off sounds of Marcus's gunshots, everything was still and quiet.

Rob walked along the rubble filled street he was on until he found the semblance of a whole building. Indeed it was whole, for the most part in the very least. Having had all of it's windows blown out, and it's door ripped off of it's hinges long ago, the walls were much better built up then the ones of the wreaked building around it. A sign posted on the wall next to the door-less entry of the building read:

S…ph K…ts

….ors of W….

Rob grimaced, seeing that the sign had holes shot through it. "0T is just mad now isn't he?" He murmured to himself, as he walked up to, and through the doorway into the building.

The interior of the building was all right for the most part. With next to no damage to any of the furniture within, Rob guessed that the machines didn't waste time with the building just yet. "That's a good sign. I might have a good chance of finding it then." Rob muttered. Walking through the building as quickly as he could, Rob came to what looked to be a large dojo like room.

There was dozens of wooden dummies sitting about the room, a few looked more used then other with some of their arms broken in places or the wooden bodies won down from the frequent amount of blows they must have taken. The middle of the large room was spaced off with a large fighting mat placed on the floor. This obviously was where one on one sparring took place.

Rob glanced around the room cautiously, before taking a step inside of it. Wary of whatever potential dangers could be waiting for him. Ice was covering his hands, witch were gripped tightly while they hung at his sides. "Where could it be?" He hummed quietly. "Somewhere in this room…that's for sure."

He worked his way deeper into the room, unaware of the small pair of eyes that were following him as he went. They belonged to a small girl of the hedgehog species. Her golden hair was unkempt and messy as was the light pink fur covering her body. Her clothes, ragged and torn, showed signs of light patch work. Her whole body was covered in dirt and grim, leading to the conclusion that she had been 'living' in the remains of this city for sometime now since it's decline to its current state.

Something glimmered in the corner of Rob's eye, and he turned quickly to spot it. A small glittering bracelet lay on the ground a few feet from him. Smiling, Rob walked over to it and picked it up off the ground. "Crystal might like this a bit…I'll keep it for her." He muttered, shoving the bracelet into his pants pocket before returning to scanning the room for what it was he was searching for. "Not much time left. Marcus has got to be low on ammo now, or using those daggers of his."

He walked over to the mat in the center of the room, and examined it carefully. He noticed that it seemed to bulge slightly in the far corner far him. "He wouldn't have…would he?" Rob muttered, walking over to the corner and grabbing the mat.

He tugged on the mat a few times, finding that it was much heavier then it looked, and pulled it aside revealing a door in the ground with a heavy metal ring anchored to it. "He did! Now to find it!" Rob bent over and grabbed the ring of the door with both hands. He took in a quick breathe and heaved the door open with some amount of effort.

He looked down inside of the opening in the floor that the door had filled, and smiled finding that it was covering the item that he was looking for. The gray Chaos Emerald! "Seraph, you brilliant old bird!" Rob cheered, as he reached down and grabbed the emerald, placing it into a small brown leather pouch that he fixed to his right hip. "Now to get ou…"

Smashing through the wall suddenly was a horde of machines. Each of their in-human red eyes focused on Rob. At their head was a green hedgehog with three small upturned spines on the back of his head. His eyes covered by thick black sunglasses, and his body clad in black clothing, an evil snarl on his face. "I've got you now, Rob!" He growled.

"Kuna!" Rob cried out in horror, seeing his enemy before him. "Don't tell me that 0T gave you the task of searching the city for us!" Sweat started to form on his forehead, now, as fear gripped his legs, rooting him to the spot.

Kuna laughed mirthlessly, taking a few steps closer to Rob. "Of course he did! Knowing that Seraph was here, Master 3771-0T knew that you and your friends wouldn't be far behind, assuming that you hadn't caught up with your old master already that is." He rose up his left hand to point it at Rob; water was starting to drip from it, as well as his other hand. "Poor, poor Rob, First his father, then his uncle, and finally his master! Now it looks like it is your turn!"

The little girl, watching this, immediately turned to run but ended up slamming right into a wooden dummy behind her. She fell to the ground, along with the dummy causing enough noise to alert everyone to her presence there.

Kuna reacted first, by aiming his other hand towards where she was, water firing out of it in an angry torrent. The water slammed into her, and smashed her into a nearby wall, pressing her face and body hard into the stone of the building. Kuna smiled evilly, seeing that it was a young girl. "Well, well…Seems someone wanted to cut and run just before things got good!" He said turning his head to look at Rob once more. "You know…I think I'll have some fun with the two of you." He said.

Rob, upon seeing the girl being pressed into the wall, had three shards of ice in each hand. He wore an angry scowl on his face, and his previously gentle eyes had now narrowed down to thin slits as they focused on Kuna, rage consuming him. "Damn it Kuna!" He yelled, that shards of ice in his hands seemed to glow intensely from the inside. "Let her go!"

"Not a chance, Enchidnox. I'm going to enjoy every moment of this. First I'm going to beat you to an inch of your life then I'll kill her in front of you." Kuna said, laughing manically. "Then I'll kill you, and hunt down your friends!"

"Oh no you don't!" Came Marcus's voice from behind the machines. Suddenly of them had a flash of bright steel push through the back of it's head. It was gone in the next second, as Marcus had moved along to the next one in his way.

"Don't just stand there! Kill him!" Kuna yelled, the water coming from his hand stopping, as he turned to aim both hands at Marcus. Something sharp landed in his back before he could get a good shot of water off though, and his eyes widened. "Sonnova…" He was interrupted by the ice shard in his back giving off a small explosion that sent him flying through his own men, through the hole in the wall, and into the wall of the next building over. There he lay dazed, the combination of the blast and collision with the wall knocking him silly.

Rob smiled briefly, before throwing out the remaining five shards he had made, and rushing over to the small girl. "Hey! Get up! Your coming with us!" He said holding out a hand for her to take.

She looked at him with fearful eyes, but a quick glance at the robots that Marcus was cutting down, reminded her of what was really going on, and she grabbed his hand. "Th-thank y-you…" She said in a quiet, shy voice.

Rob smiled at her, and turned back to look at the machines and Marcus again. "Marcus! Let's head out of here, I've got what we came here for anyway!" He called.

Marcus shoved his dagger through the next machine, and laughed. "Excellent! Put up out screen and we'll make tracks. I'm sure the others are waiting for us!" He called back.

Rob formed a shard of ice big enough to fill his palm, and prepared to throw it towards the remaining bots. "Move it, or lose it Marc! Here it comes!" He yelled, throwing the shard with all of his might.

Marcus pulled his dagger from one last machine, and ran out of the way of the on coming shard. Moments later, it exploded destroying the remaining robots, and clearing the path for Rob and Marcus to run through the hole in the wall, now made larger by the explosion.

They charged out of it, and made for the street to their right. The small girl riding on Rob's back. Once at the street, they took off as quickly as their legs would take them to the right, back the way they had come before. Nearly half an hour later, they stopped at the edge of the city. Both of them were exhausted, Rob especially due to carrying the girl.

They quickly checked to make sure that nothing had followed after them and then allowed themselves to relax and rest a moment. Both chuckling happily at their narrow escape. "Thank god you showed up when you did Marcus. I wasn't looking forward to taking on Kuna alone." Rob said.

"Aw…It doesn't matter if I'm there or not. You could have taken him easily. You did it after I showed up after all." Marcus said grinning at his friend. "it only took you one shard to knock him from the fight."

"He was focused on you, Marc, Of course I only needed one to knock him out." Rob countered. "If he had been focusing on me, I would have been in trouble."

"Bah, says I." Marcus said, starting to walk down the road away from the city now. "You have so much more then those little shards to throw at him. You could take him weather he's focused on you or not. He's just a loser after all." He stopped by a large boulder, nearby and grabbed something from behind it. A board type of Extreme Gear. "Now, let's get going before liquid head, gathers more peons and tracks us down."

Rob nodded, and turned to look at the little girl. "You're going to stick with us from now on, all right?" He asked her.

She was still looking at him with fear filled eyes, but the fear was a bit less then it had been before. A weak smile crossed her lips, as she slowly nodded her head.

Rob smiled at he, and dropped down to one knee so that he would be eye level with her. "Good. Now, I'm Rob, and he's Marcus." He said pointing to himself and Marcus in turn. "Can you please tell me you name?"

She remained quiet for a few moments. She stared into Rob's eyes, evidently trying to decide if telling them her name would be a good idea. She soon nodded her head however, and smiled weakly once again. "I-it's…Tannis…" She said quietly.

Rob held out a hand and quickly shook hands with her. "Glad to have met you Tannis. Now just take my hand and follow us. We'll get you someplace safe in no time at all." He said.

She did so, and they quickly set forth, leaving the old crumbling city behind them.

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Well there you have it. Something to start with. I'll see all of you readers later on. See YA!


	2. Chapter 2

All right then, here is chapter 2. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own the storyline, and some of the characters in this story. I DO NOT own Sonic, Shadow, or Tails.

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Standing with his arms folded over his chest, Shadow the hedgehog stood near the door of Tails's old laboratory near emerald beach. His face was drawn out in his normal scowl as he watched the young fox genius search through the rubble and wreckage of the building's interior. "Are you sure that there's something here we can use?" Shadow asked sternly, "I think we're just wasting time here. This whole town, has been demolished, why would 0T leave anything in here intact?"

"He wouldn't, not intentionally." Tails replied, as he shoved aside the ruins of some old experimental machines he had been working on. "Even 0T would know that anything I have here could be a threat to him and his plans. He probably destroyed this whole building himself, if not send someone powerful to do it for him." Tails paused for a moment, looking at a small metal box. It was a project he had been working on since after he had first met Rob Cold. A small smile crossed his lips, as he reached for the box and picked it up. "This could be useful later…" he muttered, "…but it's not what I'm here for…I just hope that it's still intact." He continued to work his way through the wreckage.

Shadow frowned, and turned to look out the open doors of the lab, his eyes dancing around over every broken down building, and pile of wreckage he saw. Something didn't seem right to him even if nothing was meant to seem right in this bleak setting. "Hurry it up! I think something is heading this way." Shadow would say after a moment.

This sadly enough was true, as a dozen of machines were making their way towards the run down lab. Shadow wouldn't know this for sure at the moment though, as they were still a block or so a way. Only his connection with the power of Chaos gave him this vague feeling. "Talis…I'm being serious…speed it up!"

Hearing this warning, Talis started working faster, each second, ticking by quickly, and what he was looking for was still no where to be found. "Shadow…if something happens, you need to by me some time…I'm almost finished looking through all of this mess."

"How much time are we talking about?" Shadow asked, his hands gripping tightly and glowing a faint yellow color.

"Maybe five minuets…" Tails replied, as he shoved aside a large pile of wreckage.

Shadow now saw the first few of the machines rounding a corner, and making their way towards the lab, and snarled. "Do it in three." He'd say, as he charged out the door way, and threw out a chaos spear from both of his hands.

The chaos spears flew right into the torso's of two of the machines, destroying them instantly. This would be the best chance Shadow had at taking the machines out though, as now they were aware of his presence. Their arms came up all at once, with their bladed fingers glinting in the sunlight. Their cold red eyes fixed on Shadow.

"Great, 0T's elite fighters, The Lions." Shadow growled quietly, as his hands started to glow with chaos energy once more. "This is going to be more trouble then I thought."

Lion's was a technical term for the machines. They looked rather more like a cross between a panther and a lion, making them quite lithe and agile. They shared one thing in common with their boss and that was the bladed fingers they used as their primary weapons.

One of the Lions stepped forward, and pointed one of these blades right at Shadow. "Shadow the hedgehog!" it would say in an ominous metallic voice, "Surrender here and now, or face your death where you stand."

"I don't think so." Shadow spat back at the machine, "You're going to just have to kill me…that is, if you pathetic contraptions can keep up with me." With the last word leaving his mouth, Shadow threw out two more Chaos Spears that landed in the heads of the Lions standing on either side of the one who had spoken.

Unfazed by this the Lion wagged it's finger at Shadow. "You've just given up your life…meatbag." It said before charging head first towards Shadow. It's bladed fingers were outstretched. Stopping just short of Shadow, it slashed it's left hand upwards nearly cutting open Shadow's chest, and most likely would have, if Shadow had still been standing in the same place.

The second the Lion had charged forward, Shadow had moved as well, charging forwards at an incredible speed, right past his attacker and into the remaining group of machines. This proved to be more of a mistake then Shadow had anticipated though, as they all slashed at him the moment he was within reach of their bladed hands. To avoid this, Shadow had to jump with his jet shoes propelling him upwards at maximum power, and even then he was still clipped in his legs by the machines. Landing heavily beyond the group, Shadow dropped to one knee, before standing upright once again. "You're not nearly fast enough to beat me." He said proudly, spinning around to throw out one more chaos spear, taking out another Lion.

The remaining Lion's took this small opening, and charged forward, grabbing Shadow by his arms, and dragging him off into the nearest wall, where they slammed him against it, while the head Lion approached him. "Even the Ultimate Lifeform can't defeat twelve Lions." It said, holding up a bladed hand just inches away from Shadow's face. "This is your end…meatbag."

"You still don't get it…you stupid machine…I've been holding back, but now that Your all close to each other…CHAOS…" Shadow's entire body started to glow a faint red, as chaos energy started to flow through out his whole body, "BLAST!!!" The chaos energy exploded outward from Shadow's body, obliterating the remaining Lion's as well as the remains of most of the building near by. Soon after the blast had dissipated, Shadow stood breathing heavily, as he looked towards the lab where Tails was now standing, a glowing yellow object in his hands. "You found it!" Shadow called, skating towards the fox.

Tails nodded his head, and held up his hand witch was tightly gripping the yellow chaos emerald, or rather a fake one that he had made. "We're lucky that 0T didn't shatter it when he had the lab ruined. With this, the emerald that Rob and Marcus went to gather, and your chaos abilities. I should be able to rig up something to help up track down the remaining emeralds."

"Humph…I don't see why we should even bother getting them all…I could deal with dumb machine alone and right now if I wanted to." Shadow said rather angrily.

Tails shook his head, and sighed. "You tried that once, and nearly had your arms and legs taken off by his blades. You were lucky that Crystal was able to patch you up the way you looked…your even luckier that Sonic and Rob stopped him from killing you."

Shadow didn't have anything to say to this, because admittedly, Tails was right, no matter how much Shadow had wished other wise. This was why Shadow had agreed to help Sonic and the rest of their little band out, and why he was here now acting as Tails's bodyguard. "We should leave now…Before more of those Lion's show up." Shadow said holding out one of his hands.

"Right…" Tails agreed, taking the hand in his.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled, and the pair vanished from sight.

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Amid a small cluster of trees, Sonic stood with a hand over his eyes, as he kept watch for Rob and Marcus returning from their little trip, his green eyes passing over every inch of the barren wasteland before him.

Beyond him, was a trio of tents around a small fire. Sitting by the fire was a light brown fox, though her body seemed to be a bit more muscled then a regular fox, and that was due to the wolf blood that flowed through her veins. Her violet eyes were gazing into the fire, as she hummed a tune to herself. She was dressed in yellow clothes, and normally had a brown coat as well, but today she had decided not to wear it. "How long until they come back?" She called out towards Sonic suddenly.

Sonic turned his head towards her, and sighed. "I don't know…now please stop asking, ok, Tira." He said, going back to his surveillance of the region before him.

Tira sighed, and gazed into the fire once more, the tune she had been humming coming back to her lips in no time at all, as she started to wonder if her brother was safe.

Nearby, the soft sound of someone walking could be heard. Turing her head, Tira could see that it was only her close friend, Crystal. Crystal was returning from a short walk, and in her arms, she was carrying a small, pathetic looking bundle of sticks and twigs.

"Hey Crys." Tira would say happily. "See you brought something for the fire."

Nodding her head crystal walked over to her friend, and set down the bundle, she then sat down next to her friend with a smile on her face. "Not much left around here…we should think about moving from here soon." She would say after a moment, "I think Bro wants to move away form here anyway though so maybe I won't have to tell him."

"You should let him know about the wood shortage though…I mean…it's not like we're going to cut these trees down for wood." Tira gestured to the trees around them and sighed, "They're giving us our cover after all."

Crystal nodded her head thoughtfully, her purple hair swaying gently as she did so. "Yeah, I know. I'll let him know about it when he gets back then." She said.

The sound of Tails falling over came suddenly from near by, witch alarmed both girls, and Sonic. Once they saw Shadow walking towards them with Tails right behind him though they relaxed, and smiled at their friend's return.

"I guess you guys found what you went to find then?" Sonic called from where he was standing.

"You bet we did!" Tails exclaimed cheerfully, holding up the fake chaos emerald in his hand. "Now we just need to wait for Rob, and Marcus to come back with the emerald they went for." Tails looked over at Sonic, his smile wide. "Have you seen any sign of them yet?" He asked.

Sonic shook his head gravely, "Not even…I was waiting for you two to get back so I could go out looking for them…they should have been back some time ago." He glanced over at Shadow with half closed eyes. "Would you mind helping me out on this one Shadow? Two sets of eyes are better then one."

"Hrrmm…" Shadow growled angrily, his arms folding over his chest, as his usual glare focused on Sonic. "If I must…" He growled, apparently detesting the thought of helping Sonic do anything.

"Okay! See you guys in a little bit then!" Sonic said, looking at Tails and the girls, before taking off like a bullet, dust being left in his wake.

Shadow sighed, before skating off after Sonic with a similar trail of dust following after him. Catching up to Sonic with no trouble, Shadow growled again to let his blue companion know that he was there.

"We'll have those two found in no time!" Sonic said enthusiastically, "We'll split up and meet back at the camp in about fifteen minuets, ok?" He would ask.

"That's fine with me." Shadow said in a half quiet tone, before picking up his speed a bit, and passing Sonic. He was more comfortable looking alone then searching as a team with Sonic anyways.

Sonic, knowing that Shadow would rather have him leave as soon as possible, had taken off the moment Shadow had agreed to the plan of action, leaving Shadow alone. _"Now then…Let's see if they're close by."_ Shadow thought, as he sped deep into the barrens.

--

"Bit quiet…isn't she?" Marcus asked, he was sitting on his gear as it hovered along next to Rob. "I haven't heard her talk since we started to move away since the city."

Rob looked down at Tannis, and nodded his head. "Yeah…but then can you blame her…she just left her home behind her, and is traveling with two people she doesn't even know." Rob looked at his friend now, and smirked. "You'd be quiet two. She might brighten up once we meet up with the others though, Tira and Crystal can take good care of her."

"Yeah, that's true." Marcus agreed, "Don't you think we should pick up the pace though, it'll take us a few hours to get back to the camp if we keep following the road, and walk this slowly."

"I think we'll be fine Marcus. I really doubt that Kuna could have sent word out that we were in the area, you know that he hates admitting a failure to anyone." Rob said, "He's too proud to do so."

"That much we know, as well as we know that usually where ever Kuna is, Matt and Erk can't be too far off. We could still be in some serious danger here." Marcus said.

"The barrens around us could be too much for Tannis to handle right now though Marcus." Rob said a little annoyed, "How can we be sure that either Erk or Matt are this far out from the city anyway?"

Marcus shrugged, and looked up the road. "I don't know. Those two are much more subtle then their hothead friend after all…heck, Matt could be following us right now, camouflaged from sight thanks to his chameleon abilities."

Rob frowned, knowing that Marcus had put up a very good point, The smoky chameleon could indeed be following them, and that made Rob start to get nervous. "Maybe hitting the barrens would be a good idea for awhile…and picking up the pace a bit wouldn't hurt either…but not too much for Tannis to fall behind."

Marcus smiled, "Don't worry about it Rob. She can sit on my gear while we move…heck, she probably should have been doing that from the start. We can cover ground much better that way."

Rob nodded his head slowly, and crouched down next to young Tannis. "You hear everything we just talked about?" He asked, knowing full well that treating her like she had just shown up would have been extremely rude.

Tannis just nodded her head in a silent response, her gaze going forward the entire time.

"Okay, good then." Rob said, standing up once more, and walked off ahead of both her and Marcus.

Marcus had gotten off of his gear, and brought it over to Tannis, "Here, hop on." He said quickly, "You can use this while we are moving, I'll even pull you along on it with this." He tugged on a thin piece of plastic that came off of his gear, and revealed that it had a short tether rope attached to it. "This way all you have to do is sit on it, all right?"

Tannis nodded her head, once more, as she got on to the extreme gear. Her gaze still fixed ahead as if something was actually there.

Marcus smirked, and chased off after Rob with his gear and Tannis in tow.

Half an hour would pass, as the trio would wander through the barrens. Rob at the small group's head, while Marcus remained a few steps behind him, the tether rope gripped tightly in his left hand, Tannis sitting upon the gear, her eyes still gazing off into the distance. Suddenly Rob would stop every now and then, and look around like he was expecting to find some of 0T's minions charging towards them, or catch Matt the Chameleon with his blending power turned off for a slight moment. Of course he wouldn't see anything, and would continue on.

"Not long until we hit the camp right Rob?" Marcus would ask after awhile.

"We can't be too far off…it's not like we had to travel a couple of days to get to the city after all." Rob replied.

"Yeah, but I don't see it any where, and even with our slow start, we should have found it by now." Marcus said, looking rather nervous now. "I think something is up."

"What exactly would be going on, Marcus?" Rob asked a bit angrily, "Someone is making us travel in circles with out us knowing it? Not likely, no one we know could pull something like that, or fool us enough to do something like this."

Marcus frowned, and clicked his tongue. "I just have that kind of feeling Rob…I never claimed to know what was really happening."

"Aw…Poor Marcus is perplexed huh? Maybe I can help you with an answer then!" this voice hadn't been heard in the normal fashion, but was heard directly within the trio's heads. Fear and anger gripped the both Rob and Marcus's heart as they knew exactly who it was.

"Surprised boys? Why should you be…it's not the first time I've been left for dead after all. Neuron won't die as easily as that!"

Rob looked back at Marcus with his eyes wide. They both had the same thought passing through their minds. Neuron The Bat was back! Both of them then prepared themselves, as they waited for the Psychic bat to show himself.

"Calm yourselves boys…I have nothing against you at the moment." Came Neuron's voice once more.

"Yeah right Neuron! Nothing you say or do can be trusted!" Marcus yelled, "You nearly killed my uncle the last time we met, along with Rob's father! We have no reason to be calm!"

"You'll be calm, and not yell like that again if you know what's good for you Marcus my boy." was Neuron's reply, "not if you want to live for to much longer."

"What are you talking about Bat!" Rob asked, the icicles in his hands growing a little larger.

"I'm talking about a pack of 0T's Lion's passing by to far from you three. If you even think of yelling that loud again they will find you and tear you all apart."

Hearing this made Marcus and Rob both relax slightly, though knowing that it was their oldest enemy that they were talking to, they remained on guard. "You have my attention now Bat." Rob said after a moment. "Now tell us why we can't seem to find our camp."

"It's simple, Cold, 0T has me doing it under orders."

"Your working to 0T, I didn't think you would have done something like that, even if you were alive."

"Well you see…I'm not doing it by my own choice. You've seen what the machine does to those that don't agree to join him, this was the most logical choice to stay alive."

"What are worried about dieing for…you've been killed twice so far."

"That's where you're wrong, only your father, and uncle ever came close to killing me. You, Marcus and Keaka aren't nearly as strong as those two were, but I digress, 0T isn't aware of our little conversation at this moment, and I'm only talking to you right now because I have one request of you."

"What's that Neuron?"

"You must look for Erk and tell him that I'm alive."

"Why should I? You talk to him like this after all, tell him yourself."

"I've tried that you fool! 0T has installed something within my men that stops my powers from contacting them. They really believe that I'm six feet under, and with out my ability to contact them I may as well be to them."

Rob frowned. "Well tell me one thing then Neuron…what makes you think for one instant that your man will even listen to me. I think Erk has it out for me and Marcus more then your man, Kuna."

"Trust me, you aren't wrong there, but he knows the truth when he hears it. He might not stop fighting you, but he'll know you aren't lying." Neuron replied.

"And what will happen exactly, when your men learn that you're still breathing?" Marcus asked irritably, evidently tired of both the conversation, and Neuron.

"That is something I'll work out with my men, but you won't have to worry about them getting on your case for sometime, not while 0T remains active anyway."

Rob looked at Marcus with a questioning glance. Their oldest enemy was offering them a deal, that would indeed help them, but, it was after all Neuron, and there was nothing that could convince them that he would keep up his part of this little deal.

"I don't make a habit of offering deals that I don't follow through boys." Neuron said, "Anything I have said you can trust."

"If you say so, Neuron…I believe we do what you ask of us then. The next time we meet up with Erk, we'll tell him you are still alive."

"Very good, now, I'll release my hold on you, stay exactly where you are, because one of your friends is about to reach you. So long boys."

With the sudden departure of Neuron from their minds, everything felt quiet, and soon enough, Shadow had sped right towards them. "There you are!" the black hedgehog would say, as he came to a dead stop. "What has kept you two…" Shadow paused upon seeing Tannis sitting on Marcus's gear, "…You brought along someone with you I see. This explains why you were taking so long." He said grumpily.

"Yeah, and we found the emerald." Marcus said happily. "Tails can get to work the second we get back to the camp."

Rob nodded his head, and leaned in close to Shadow. "Speaking of witch…Warp us back."

"Why should I?" Shadow asked, his eyes thinning angrily.

"Because I have a good feeling that Matt has been following us, and is close by. If we walked back to the camp now, he could easily track us if we started to move." Rob said.

Shadow nodded his head, knowing that normally this kind of feeling was right. "All right then." He looked at Marcus, "Get a hold of your board, and you get off of it. I need you three in direct contact."

Tannis jumped off of the gear, and walked up to Marcus, taking one of his hands in hers, while he gripped his gear in his other hand. Rob then placed a hand on Marcus's shoulder while taking a hold of Shadow's arm.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled, and the group vanished from sight.

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Thanks for reading, and I'll see you all later!


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